Responsible credit card use can help you get out of a bad-credit situation.  If you’ve had some problems making payments in the past, or know your credit isn’t perfect- then you know exactly how it effects you.  When you apply for credit, you get turned down.  Even a new employer can use your credit score as a reason not to hire you!  Your automobile insurance rates can increase if you have poor credit.  Getting an apartment will be as impossible as a mortgage, since most landlords rely on your credit score now to determine whether or not you are a good tenant.
So- if you have already damaged your credit or it’s just not as good as you would like, you … (more) October 25, 2007

Posted in Credit Card Advice 2 Comments »

Identity theft is a growing concern, despite the high-tech attempts companies are making to help prevent it from happening.  It used to be that you’d only have to worry about identity theft if you were crazy enough to throw away documents without shredding them first.  If Joe the identity-thief was rifling through the dumpster, he’d be able to take those documents and run with them… literally, and start charging things in your name.
Now though, our information is stored all over the place.  Retail store databases, websites where we’ve created accounts and made payments for items, or where we’ve entered our personal information in order to receive payments for work completed.  Every time we swipe a credit card or debit card, … (more) October 24, 2007

Posted in Credit Card Tips, Identity Theft 3 Comments »

Don’t you just hate it when you  hear about a good deal after it’s too late to benefit from it?  Hopefully that won’t happen to you since you’re reading this right now!
Don’t miss out on getting $75 for doing nothing special the way that I did.  I still have steam coming out of my ears since I saw this information posted on some other blog out there after the fact. Why couldn’t it have been posted BEFORE I opened my Bank of America account?  WHY?!
I actually just opened a new checking account with Bank of America online with a friend about a week ago for a business thing we’re going to be doing together… we live in different states so we liked the convenience … (more) October 23, 2007

Posted in Promotional Offers 1 Comment »

Discover card has to get creative when trying to lure customers over to their side of the fence.  Competing against the big names – MasterCard and Visa is no easy task, but Discover has come up with a clever rewards program that just might make more people see the Discover card as a better option for their credit card choice.
Pay On Time : Get Rewarded
In the world of credit card payments, if you pay on time, you avoid late fees.  While that might be incentive enough to make your payments on time, Discover thought they’d go a step further. When you make your payments on time, you receive a “pay-on-time bonus” which is equal to a month’s worth of interest fees, whenever you have … (more) October 22, 2007

Posted in Credit Card General, Rewards 3 Comments »

Some people think secured credit cards are for people who just cant get any other financing. While it’s true that individuals with less than perfect credit can still get a secured credit card, many secured options offer just as many benefits as traditional cards and should not be over looked as a valuable form of business credit.
If your business is just starting, it won’t have a credit history. It’s very much like a teenager who has just graduated high school- it can be difficult to get a credit card because you haven’t yet established credit worthiness. So if you’re a business owner, you should not rule out the secured card option when it comes to applying for business credit cards.
Secured … (more) October 20, 2007

Posted in Bad Credit, Business 1 Comment »

Yes, credit cards have a bad reputation in the eyes of most people. We all do it though- we get mad because we pay one of our credit cards a little late and then get hit with late fees, or worse, an interest rate hike on all of our credit cards.
You can really maximize your card usage though, and get more out of your rewards programs and get more control over your finances if you were to use your credit card to pay for all of your bills, purchases and expenses each month.
Now, if you do this- you have to be someone who has control! A lot can go wrong if you don’t keep yourself to a budget and make … (more) October 19, 2007

Posted in Credit Card Advice, Credit Card General, Credit Card Tips 2 Comments »